Of torment and temptresses

In 1772, a tower was erected in the grounds of Stourhead on the supposed site of a Saxon victory over Viking invaders. Its inscription identified King Alfred of Wessex as the “light of a benighted age”. It also ascribed to him the instigation of a whole list of things that the 9th-century monarch would probably have found mystifying, including the jury system, the Royal Navy, the militia (there’s some factual basis for that one) and “English MONARCHY and LIBERTY”. There’s nothing like association with a long-ago hero, especially one labelled “the Great”, to make a nation feel more secure, and give it the confidence to expand.

David Horspool deftly dismantles the image of Alfred, and lays out the pieces alongside the account of him given by Asser, his authorised